page_title: Motorcycle tyre
section_title: Types
hierarchical_section_title: Motorcycle tyre / Types
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Spikes auf dem Vorderrad eines JAWA- Eisspeedway- Rennmotorrads. Musem Neckarsulm. Eigenes Foto November 2006. English: Close-up of a studded front tyre as used in Ice Speedway
context_page_description: Motorcycle tyres are the outer part of motorcycle wheels, attached to the rims, providing traction, resisting wear, absorbing surface irregularities, and allowing the motorcycle to turn via countersteering. The two tyres' contact patches are the motorcycle's connection to the ground, and so are fundamental to the motorcycle's suspension behaviour, and critically affect safety, braking, fuel economy, noise, and rider comfort.
context_section_description: Motorcycle tyres are available for many different applications, including: Sport, Sport Touring, Touring, Cruiser, Scooter, On/Off Road, Dual-Sport, Enduro, Motocross and Racing. There are tyres designed for dirtbikes, touring, sport and cruiser bikes.
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  Sport/performance tyres provide excellent grip but may last 1,000 miles (1,609 km) or less. Cruiser and "sport touring" tyres try to find the best compromise between grip and durability. There is also a type of tyre developed specifically for racing. These tyres offer the highest of levels of grip for cornering. Because of the high temperatures at which these tyres typically operate, use on the street is unsafe as the tyres will typically not reach optimum temperature before a rider arrives at the destination, thus providing almost no grip en route. In racing situations, racing tyres would normally be brought up to temperature in advance by the use of tyre warmers.
  Sport Touring tyres are generally not used for high cornering loads, but for long straights, good for riding across the country.
  Sport Street tyres are for aggressive street riders that spend most of their time carving corners on public roadways.  These tyres do not have a long life, but in turn have better traction in high speed cornering. Street and sport street tyres have good traction even when cold, but when warmed too much, can actually lose traction as their internal temperature increases.
  Track or Slick tyres are for track days or races.  They may have more of a triangular profile, which in turn gives a larger contact patch while leaned over. These tyres are not recommended for the street by manufactures, and are known to have a shorter life on the street. Due to the triangulation of the tyre, there will be less contact patch in the centre, causing the tyre to develop a flat spot quicker when used to ride on straightaways for long periods of time and have no tread so they lose almost all grip in the wet. Racing slicks are always made of a softer rubber compound and do not provide as much traction as street tyres until warmed to a higher internal temperature than street tyres normally operate at. Most street riding will not put a sufficient amount of friction on the tyre to maintain the slick's optimal tyre temperature, especially in colder climates and in spring and fall.
  Cruiser tyres are relatively new. Until recently other tires would be used for cruisers, resulting in a tyre that wasn't quite right for cruising.  Sport tyres for example, were often used to enhance the appearance of the bike, even if the bike doesn't have the power to use the tyres to their full extent. Cruiser tyres are often thinner and fatter than sports tyres, meant for a good grip and smooth ride. They are often decorated with custom rims, whitewalls, or tire stickers.
  Off road tyres have knobby, deep treads for maximum grip on loose dirt, mud, sand, or gravel; such tyres tend to be less stable on paved surfaces.
  Touring tyres are usually made of harder rubber for greater durability. They may last longer, but they tend to provide less outright grip than sports tyres at optimal operating temperatures. The tradeoff is that touring tyres typically offer more grip at lower temperatures, meaning they can be more suitable for riding in cold or winter conditions whereas a sport tyre may never reach the optimal operating temperature.
caption: Studded front tyre with spikes used on Ice speedway
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